Bay Area Wedding Videography

One guy. One Camera.

Wedding videos that don’t suck.

Beautiful, Simple, Documentary Style Wedding Videography

by Graham King

One guy, one camera

I shoot every wedding by myself with one camera. No paparazzi taking over. No lights shining in your eye. A wedding isn’t a movie set. I’m there to document the wedding day without drawing attention to myself.

Complete coverage

I record every important part of the day and many moments in between. The most important parts like the ceremony and speeches are captured in their entirety. In between those parts, I capture details and candid moments.

Documentary Style

I shoot things as they happen. I don’t direct things to tell people what to do. I focus on people and action. I carefully capture multiple sources of natural sound. The result is a documentary style video that beautifully captures your wedding day.

High End Equipment

Being a great wedding videographer really isn’t about the tools, it’s how they’re used. Having mastered that, I’ve invested in the best tools for the job such as the Canon C300 Mark II, the Rode NTG-3, and Sennheiser’s 2000 series wireless systems.

Highlight Reels

My Highlight Reels are designed to be fast paced and fun. Each one is uniquely crafted for the couple. And they were all shot by me alone with one camera.

Documentary Edits

With every package, you get what I call the Documentary Edit. You’re going to see everything I shot on the wedding day. But it’s not what you would consider raw footage. There are no shots of my feet or the ceiling, just extremely high quality video and audio from beginning to end. The most important parts of the day like the ceremony and speeches are captured in their entirety. In between those moments, I capture whatever I see like details and candid moments. On a typical 8 hour shoot, I don’t actually record 8 hours of footage because I record selectively. Instead, the Documentary Edit is typically 2-3 hours long. It really is the documentary of your wedding day. Here are some short samples of my Documentary Edits.

Packages & Pricing

With every package, you get what I call the Documentary Edit. When you upgrade your package, you get the Highlight Reel. To learn about my Documentary Edits and Highlight Reels, check out my Q&A below and samples in my portfolio above.

Documentary Package

Graham for 8 consecutive hours

Cinema camera package: Canon C300 Mark II

Audio package: Up to 5 channels of recording

Full HD recording and digital delivery (4K available)

Documentary Edit

Documentary Package: $2,495

2017 Saturdays: $500 OFF!

All Fridays & Sundays: $700 OFF!

All Mondays-Thursdays: $900 OFF!

Highlight Package

Graham for 8 consecutive hours

Cinema camera package: Canon C300 Mark II

Audio package: Up to 5 channels of recording

Full HD recording and digital delivery (4K available)

Documentary Edit

Highlight Reel

Highlight Package: $3,995

2017 Saturdays: $500 OFF!

All Fridays & Sundays: $700 OFF!

All Mondays-Thursdays: $900 OFF!

Other Stuff

Upgrade to 4K: $795

Additional shooting hours: $300

Non-shooting hours: $100

Travel: $1 per mile roundtrip plus expenses

Blu-ray Discs: $300 + tax on entire package

Double the length of your Highlight Reel: $995

Electronic payments: +3%

Q&A

Questions About Packages

With every wedding videography package, you get what I call the Documentary Edit. You’re going to see everything I shot on the wedding day. But it’s not what you would think of as raw footage. There are no shots of my feet or the ceiling, just extremely high quality video and audio from beginning to end. The most important parts of the day like the ceremony and speeches are captured in their entirety. In between those moments, I capture whatever I see like details and candid moments. On a typical 8 hour shoot, I don’t actually record 8 hours of footage because I record selectively. Instead, the Documentary Edit is typically 2-3 hours long. It really is the documentary of your wedding day. There are some short samples of my Documentary Edits in my portfolio, above.

The Highlight Reel is a fully-edited music-video-style montage of your wedding. Each one is uniquely tailored to the couple and I aim to make them fast paced and fun. They’re the length of a song, so the Highlight Reel is typically 3-4 minutes long. You can upgrade your Highlight Reel by adding a second song and doubling its length. See my wedding videography portfolio above for samples.

By default, my packages for wedding videography in the Bay Area include minimum 8 consecutive hours of coverage time. For many weddings, this is enough for me to start with bridal preparations, shoot the entire ceremony, the entire reception schedule, and some dancing near the end of the night.

You can extend the coverage time as much as you like, at any point in time, even on the wedding day. There are two ways to do this.

1. You can add additional shooting hours at the rate above.

2. You can also add non-shooting hours at the rate above. Non-shooting hours are useful when there is some time during the wedding day that you don’t need video coverage. This allows you to make the coverage time nonconsecutive. For example, I could shoot for 3 hours in the morning, go for 2 hours not shooting, and then shoot for 5 hours in the evening. This way, you are only charged for 2 hours of non-shooting time and I can shoot a lot more of the wedding day without you incurring the cost of additional shooting time. Most people don’t use this. It all depends on the timeline of your wedding.

The package time is consecutive by default but this can be changed. You can make the hours nonconsecutive by adding non-shooting time at the rate above.

Non-shooting time is useful when there is some time during the wedding day that you don’t need video coverage. This allows you to split the package time. For example, I could shoot for 3 hours in the morning, go for 2 hours not shooting, and then shoot for 5 hours in the evening.

Yes, you can book me with the Documentary Package now and at any time in the future, even after the wedding, you can upgrade to another package. I’ve even had clients come to me a year after the wedding wanting to upgrade to a Highlight Package for their first anniversary. You would just pay the difference in package price.

There are potentially three things that would add to the cost of your wedding videography package.

Each package includes my minimum of 8 consecutive hours. If you need additional time, that would add to the package price.

There is a small travel fee for all weddings outside of Oakland. Please refer to the pricing information above.

California law requires me to collect sales tax on the full package price if I give you any physical product such as a Blu-ray, DVD, or even your own hard drive. However, you can avoid the sales tax burden if you choose the Digital Download delivery option. This is the default option with every package and it has many other benefits over disc based delivery.

Questions About Preparing for the Wedding Day

Before the wedding day, I’ll need a copy of your timeline so I can make a recommendation on the best schedule for your wedding videography. You’ll need to send me your DJ’s email address as well so I can confirm audio connectivity. I’ll also ask you to reconfirm the name and address of each location that I need to travel to on the wedding day. It’s also helpful if you can fill me in on any surprises, performances, and other things that may not be listed on the timeline.

Good sound is critical for good video. If I am able to plug into an audio output, the sound quality can be dramatically improved. This requires the cooperation of whoever is doing audio on the wedding day. This can include your DJ, band, venue, and/or church. All you need to ask is, “can you provide an audio output for the videographer?”

Questions About the Wedding Day

I take a documentary style approach with every wedding. I don’t tend to direct things; I tend to simply capture them as they happen. I’ve had more than a few clients tell me that they forgot I was there or that they didn’t even see me throughout the day.

This is a situation I hope to never encounter but of course the possibility is there. In this situation I would immediately reach out to my network of professional video colleagues. If none of them is available, I would start going through the highest rated wedding videographers until I find someone. As long as I am not incapacitated, my top priority would be making sure you are not left high and dry.

I shoot almost everything handheld. I love it and it allows me to get a lot of shots and a lot of variety in a short amount of time. I typically shoot the ceremony and first dance on a monopod and speeches on a tripod.

No. Feedback would be impossible in this case as my mics are just for the video and are not amplified. As far as interference goes, my mics can operate on 1,680 different frequencies. Whenever I get to a new location, I scan for available frequencies and only use those.

With the Canon C300 Mark II and prime lenses, this camera can see better in low light than the human eye. For those times when it’s nearly pitch black (e.g. outdoor reception after sunset with no lights overhead) I use a small on-camera LED light. I sometimes use a light to help a severely backlit subject.

To me, the relationship between videographer and photographer is one of collaboration, not competition. We’re both there to do a great job for our client. When I first meet a photographer, I usually introduce myself, shake their hand, and try to stay out of their way. Photographers usually love my unobtrusive style. And I’ve had a few tell me I was the best wedding videographer they’ve ever worked with. That always makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Yes, I do need fuel to perform so please plan a meal for me if one is being served to your guests. The timeline should designate a time for the videographer and photographers to eat and the caterer should be informed. This is typically not necessary if you’re having a buffet dinner.

Questions About Delivery

Turnaround time is typically 2 months for the Documentary Edit. Turnaround time for Highlight and Extended Highlight Reel is is 6 months from the date of the wedding or the date music is decided on, whichever is later.

Digital Download is a way of sending your wedding video to you via the Internet. I email you a link and you just follow the instructions to start the download. The Digital Download gives you the full resolution HD or 4K video so you’re not sacrificing anything.

The video format I use is the widely compatible H.264 and the files are both Mac and Windows compatible. Please keep in mind that the file size of a Documentary Edit could be 30GB or more for HD and 250GB or more for 4K. That means it could take many hours or even days to fully download over fast broadband internet.

The Digital Download also has these advantages over disc formats like Blu-ray and DVD:

If you have the hardware, software, and knowhow, you can burn your own Blu-rays and DVDs.

Anyone can potentially edit the video in the future without having to rip the compressed video off the discs.

If you want to make a fire/theft proof backup copy of your video, simply copy the files onto another hard drive and store it at a different physical location.

I keep my clients’ footage indefinitely. I can say that I still have every wedding I’ve ever shot. I do this because I want to, not because I have to. I can’t guarantee that I’ll always have a copy of your footage. Once the video has been delivered to you, it is your responsibility to create backups.